As part of the show’s 40th anniversary, the TOH TV team is revisiting projects to see how the renovations have held up over the years.Richard and Kevin recently headed to the southernmost part of the United States to take a look at the late-1886 “Conch Captain’s House,” which was renovated during Season 20 (1999). The house’s name comes from the conch seashells that are abundant in Key West, and the fact that many houses in the town were built by sea captains. The renovation included rebuilding porches, raising ceilings, and repurposing space while preserving such original features as the Dade…

At the Brookline mid-century-modern house, plans call for a combination of vertical and horizontal cedar siding on the exterior of the old and new parts of the house.But before the siding can be installed, Tom Silva makes sure that the wood will be able to breathe while also repelling moisture by applying some well-chosen materials. Helping him do the work recently was Erick Ellison, one of the Generation NEXT apprentices from summer 2018 who returned in the fall to lend a hand. “We added a rainscreen cedar breather matrix on top of the house-wrap system for the addition,” Tom explains.…

Instead of a plain passageway on the second floor of their 1920s bungalow, the homeowners of the Jamestown Net-Zero House had something a little more interesting in mind: They created a library.Making use of the two sections of the hallway flanking the door to the kids’ shared bathroom, homeowner/architect Don Powers designed bookshelves calling for the same quartersawn white oak that is used throughout the house for the kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities. The bookshelves stretch from floor to ceiling—even filling in the area above the bathroom door—and hold a collection of favorite books from every member of the family.…

When Katie Baum, a Bay Area-based photographer, bought a weekend house a couple of years ago in Monte Rio, along the Russian River in Sonoma County, she turned to designer Lois Vinsel of Lola Home Design to help her overhaul the interiors, specifically the bathroom. “It’s a two-story, two-bedroom 1970s cottage, rustic and a little funky (in a good way),” Lois says. “Katie chose to renovate the ground floor guest bathroom for a few reasons: she has frequent visitors and overnight guests, she wanted a soaking tub (which was not possible in the tiny master bathroom on the second floor),…

Paradise, California, lost nearly 14,000 homes to this year's Camp Fire. Homeowners there are among those who will find it increasingly difficult to get fire insurance. (Photo: California National Guard / CC / Flickr) Wildfires in California are putting new demands on insurance companies and making it tougher for homeowners to buy policies in high-risk areas. The New York Times reports that 3 million of the state’s 8 million houses are located in the wildland-urban interface, areas where towns and cities give way to more fire-prone grasslands and forests. About a third of all U.S. houses have been built on…

New on our radar: a design-forward place to stay in Santa Fe (the first we’ve covered). El Rey Court is located in a circa-1936 adobe motor lodge, formerly the El Rey Inn, situated on five acres of land, where the old Route 66 once passed through. The rehabbed and reopened lodgings are the vision of a husband and wife creative team based in Joshua Tree: man of many hats Jay Carroll (creative director, branding specialist, and artist; you may recognize him from the Tokyo guide he put together for us several years ago) and his wife Alison, a veteran of the…